Help --- Trouble reading small print on my new 13 inch MacBookPro!

It seemed easy enough to read in the store but the small size of the default fonts as well as my aging eyes (especially when dimmed due to it's being on battery power) is an issue. Reading it on my lap is harder than standing and reading in the brightly lit Apple store. I can also move forward or backward as required. I've had for 3 weeks so any thought of upgrading to the 15 inch is probably out of the question. It's a more expensive machine but I now realize I'd be much happier with the screen size, resolution, i5, and 330 discrete graphics anyway. $1199 vs. $1799 --- before Apple Care and other expenses. But, I suppose the 15 inch is future proofed. Should I go for it and what will the store likely tell me regarding a change (yes or no) and what would the restocking fee be? I did buy in good faith --- my first laptop so I didn't realize the 13 inch screen might be tough on reading vision impaired eyes. (P.S. The new 21 inch iMac i3 looks very tempting --- unfortunately a laptop is probably better for me.)

I did go into display (my first Mac but pretty easy to figure out and tried lower resolution --- bigger yes, but distorted with even a small change).

Tx!

Sorry im lost .....

If you want bigger text why not cmd-+ and that will enlarge the page the fit the screen ??

It could be my ignorance (it's my first Mac), I went into Display and changed 1280 x800 (or whatever) to the next one and to the first wide one. Neither looked good on the screen --- distorted and bad resolution. I'll try that command you mention --- hopefully, I can still see everything from left to right (I already enlarge the page by removing the dock and pulling down the right tab; even with a full page enlarging the print might make it impossible to see the whole page --- or I could be wrong.)

It works well here. Fits the text to the page so you still have the WHOLE window in front of you ... Just keep clicking that command to the most desired size.....Its basically a zoom feature

And if im not wrong in safari preferences there is a way to change all safari text to the size you want and save it for you ...

Will try; have been using Firefox or Chrome (quick). Tx.

Command + and - work for Firefox too. Command + 0 restores it back to default I believe.

Have you considered the magnifier or voiceover?

I use them all the time.

akula57 said:

It seemed easy enough to read in the store but the small size of the default fonts as well as my aging eyes (especially when dimmed due to it's being on battery power) is an issue.

Click to expand...

Well first off you can turn off the dimming when on battery power. Go into your system preferences and in the energy saver icon select the battery tab. After that uncheck the slightly dim option when using this power source. I hate that dimming also so I have it off. Your battery won't last as long with it off but I personally think it's worth it.

Also the screen size doesn't really have anything to do with how large the fonts are. The resolution and font size is what makes font's and pictures look larger so going to a 15" will actually make your problems worst because it has a larger resolution which makes everything smaller. Larger resolutions makes things smaller while smaller resolutions makes things bigger but you lose the sharpness from larger resolutions. Although if you can increase your font size then this becomes almost meaningless. It's better to have larger resolution with larger font sizes because it will be sharper.

So your solution is to increase your font size. In Firefox you can go to your Firefox preferences and in the content tab select the font advanced button. In there you can select a minimum font size. 12 is a good starting point and increase or decrease it depending on your preference. As mentioned by the others you can press the Command + or - keys but that zooms the whole website which also zooms pictures making them blurry.

I prefer the minimum font size feature because it only increases the font size but sometimes that does mess up the website layout a little. Chrome currently doesn't have a minimum font size feature. It's the only one of the major web browsers that doesn't.

akula57 said:

It could be my ignorance (it's my first Mac), I went into Display and changed 1280 x800 (or whatever) to the next one and to the first wide one. Neither looked good on the screen --- distorted and bad resolution.

Click to expand...

What you are experiencing is the limitation of flat panel displays so the problem is the same on Windows too. As you have noticed the image doesn't look good at anything but the native resolution which for your computer is 1280x800. Don't change the resolution. Instead do what I've said above.

Also another tip for you is that you can increase the font size in Finder so that all your folder text in Finder are larger too. You can also increase the folder icon sizes also. You can change these options by going to Finder's View menu and then Show View Options.

akula57 said:

It seemed easy enough to read in the store but the small size of the default fonts ....

Click to expand...

If you mean the font in the Menu Bar at the top of your screen, then changing the resolution is indeed the only way to increase its size. And, as you've noted, that causes distortion. That's the whole story, I'm afraid.

By the way, in Firefox, there's a number of different ways to zoom in. If you're using the trackpad, you can use the outward pinch gesture. Start with the tip of your forefinger meeting the tip of your thumb, place it on the trackpad and then open the grasp. This will make Firefox zoom in, much like on an iPhone. Additionally, you can hold Control and then use your scroll wheel (or scroll gesture on the trackpad or Magic Mouse) to zoom in.

I'm afraid that you probably won't have any more joy with the 15" MacBook Pro, because its native resolution is an even higher 1440x900 in the low end model. As the resolution increases, the font size gets smaller. The best thing to do is experiment with font and zoom settings.

And no offense intended here, but I often remind my wife of the same thing - if you find that you're having trouble discerning what otherwise normally sighted people can see, then it might be time to have your corrective lenses checked and adjusted.

Thanks, helpful and good advice.

Just do the pinch-expand touchpad gesture to enlarge. Pinch-contract to shrink. Two finger…like on a iPhone...

Stanley said:

Just do the pinch-expand touchpad gesture to enlarge. Pinch-contract to shrink. Two finger…like on a iPhone...

Click to expand...

Could have sworn I just heard an echo.